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Book of Job; Its Origin, Growth and Interpretation
Book of Job Its Origin Growth and Interpretation Author:Morris Jastrow General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1920 Original Publisher: J. B. Lippincott Subjects: Bible Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books... more ».com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III CHANGES AND ADDITIONS WITHIN THE ORIGINAL BOOK OF JOB JEWISH ORTHODOXY VERSUS SKEPTICISM The Book of Job thus enlarged by the four speeches of Elihu and the poems placed in the mouth of the Deity Himself would naturally serve to counterbalance the skeptical trend of the original book. By their very length these two appendices would profoundly impress the reader, in an uncritical age, which would fail to separate the earlier from the later strata. The confession of Job at the conclusion of each of the two speeches of Yahweh of his unworthi- ness, 58 setting forth his repentance for his audacious utterances in the original portion of the book would suffice to remove the impression made by these utterances and quiet the soul of the pious simple- minded reader. For the irreconcilable contrast between the patient and submissive Job of the story and the impatient and rebellious Job of the Symposium, such a reader would find the explanation ready at hand, that under trying circumstances even such a model of piety as Job might forget himself and be prompted to sin by complaining of his bitter fate. He could by way of confirmation point to such Psalmsas the 22nd, beginning with a cry of anguish from a distressed soul, a At the close of the first series of poems, 40, 3-5 and at the close of the poems on the hippopotamus and crocodile 42, 3. 5-6. "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me, And art far from my help at the words of my cry?" or to the 88th, wholly taken up with complaint, not unlike the manner of Job, "Thou hast laid me in...« less